Rough pub stories

[jules_s]

Tyre Smoke said:

Used to be a flat roof pub in Bedminster, Bristol just down the road from Ashton Gate called unsurprisingly The Robin. Always looked as rough as a badger's behind. Particularly on match days.

Seems it's gone now, this would have been 2003/4 I guess.

It's still there

[Tony Angelino]

basherX said:

The Flying Scotsman on York Rd in Kings Cross. We used to stop by occasionally on our way back to the union from rugby during my university in the 90s. One of the last of the strip pubs in a "pass the pint glass around" sort of way. The barmaid once grabbed my mate's balls hard when he put in 50p and asked for change. It would kick off occasionally when one of the punters did something untoward. Closest we got to trouble was when the same mate, who fancied himself as a bit of a budding entrepreneur, started negotiating with some bloke for some heroin for no reason other than he was bored.

Sawdust on the floor, supposedly the worst toilets in London and glasses you'd never drink from. Gentrified now and doing the whole craft ale thing.

Was about to mention the Flying Scotsman. After a trip to the darts in the early 00's, we went there before catching the train back oop north. before the pub we went to the cafe just down the road, sat tucking into the full mashings fry up were 2 rough lasses, turned out they were on stage 30 mins later in the pub after the pint pot had been passed round!

[andySC]

I used to visit a mate & have a pint in his local The Bryndale in Harworth (nr Doncaster). It was known locally as The Stab Inn due to a few knifings at the place. I was introduced to a fella called The Baptist, not a member of the Clergy, he threw his Mrs off a bridge into a river as he thought she was playing away.

[rastapasta]

AJB88 said:

bristolracer said:

Only if you were wearing a Celtic shirt at the time

I shouted yes as Rangers scored vs Celtic when sat in "Bad Ass Cafe" in Dublin.

My mate who supports Celtic and the rest of the bar did not look pleased, finished 1-0 happy birthday to me haha.

thats that spot in temple bar that sinead o'connor worked in back in the 80s when she had hair? sorry man i dont mean to piss on your cornflakes but thats a tourist trap. Go out to Tallaght/Firhouse and go into one of the pubs when the old firm is on or the derby between rovers and bohs and celebrate when the team not wearing green and white scores.

Edited by rastapasta on Monday 6th July 13:39

[southendpier]

Had a beer in the Bow Bells, Bow Road, London back in the day and the local hoodlums decided that I was 'F4kin' ol' bill' doing an undercover stake out.

That was interesting.

[Garemberg]

Brads67 said:

The Vine on North Junction street Edinburgh.

One that just came back to me, the Junction Bridge Bar at the corner of Ferry road. I walked into that one years ago and about faced and vamoosed out. Properly nasty place.

The massive Alsatian sitting outside at 8am really sent a message, never been in but a guy fitting my carpet lived above, he went in once and was chased out as they thought he was plod, moved out soon after

[Garemberg]

Brads67 said:

The Western in Edinburgh is pretty rough but you'll get more than topless barmaids, even at lunchtime haha.

Ha, my mate and I went in once after an all day session and ended up with the stripper buying us drinks as apparently we were no trouble

Pennyblacks at 5am was a pretty grim place it's got to get a mention..

Edited by Garemberg on Monday 6th July 14:09

[AJB88]

rastapasta said:

thats that spot in temple bar that sinead o'connor worked in back in the 80s when she had hair? sorry man i dont mean to piss on your cornflakes but thats a tourist trap. Go out to Tallaght/Firhouse and go into one of the pubs when the old firm is on or the derby between rovers and bohs and celebrate when the team not wearing green and white scores.

Edited by rastapasta on Monday 6th July 13:39

Have you been recently? match days that pub is an army of green & white, "no away fans" on the windows etc. Its certainly not a "tourist trap" on match days. The whole area is but 99% of tourists would take a look through the window and say not for us that one haha.

Just for context I'm a Lazio fan, I do away days all around Europe for Europa League etc, have been to some right dives (countries and towns) so certainly know the difference between tourist fans and ultras.

[silverfoxcc]

Southendpier

The Future Mrs Fox Mk1 FiL decided to take us all back to his old stamping ground in East London ON XMAS NIGHT!!!!
I think it was because his second home The Clissold Arms in Fortis Green Muswell Hill dfdn't open in the evening
,
We passed a few pubs that were shut and then this beacon of light in a dark oasis came into view, It was The classic East End Drinking Palace and in 1971 was still in its original condition Public, saloon and Private bar For those too young to recall those hedonistic days the only difference was apart from no carpet in the public,the games were there Dartboard, cribbage Dominos* cards etc some loose carpet in the saloon with chairs that had arms, and the Private (snug to those north of Watford) had fitted carpeting and chairs.The wall decorations went up as well The price of a pint was X in the public X+2d in the saloon, X=4 in the private bar, and the more it cost the smaller the area.
Anyway I had a feeling that this was something 'special' The clientele looked like they were auditioning for a Get Carter follow up.
I have never seen so many dodgy,and i mean dodgy geezers in one place outside of the Scrubs ( I had visited Ford open prison a few years ago to play their football team, How our Sec got that booking is beyond me, and was the time i drove a Hovercraft)

If plod had decided to visit the crime rate would have dropped to zero. Harry was being sall jack the lad and knew quite a lot of these 'gentlemen' I just sat there supping the pint and saying noting when it went rather dark in front of me, Turned our one of the had lumbered across and introduced himself as 'Dave' and just said 'Harrys got a nice lass there, you look after her' More an instruction than a throw away line.
I just nodded and squeaked from my rear end.....,Luckily for me, but not Harry, he died 6 months before we split up. Saw a few of the at the funeral, and Dave made a beeline. again the nod and involuntary bowel movement....Was very wary after the decree

• Dominos

There was a pub near Tottenham Bus garage called the White Hart, used to pop in there before going to the Royal to see the Dave Clark 5 who were the resident band. over the years it fell on hard times and we saw in the paper that the licence was not going to be renewed fro 'various reasons' so a farewell drink was on the cards. Walked in and it was no a West Indian pub, great landlord and lady, got offered some goat curry FOC, and it was bloody wonderful, so instead of downing one and going decided to say. The old boys,imagine Porkpie from Desmonds x 15 were really having some good banter. We were the only three white guys there, and just chilling out, when all of a sudden there was this rat-tat-ta-ttat-tat from the corner where the guys were. We ducked ( a bit) and looking across expecting to see carnage and blood, saw it was the beginning of a dominos game.
By Christ those fellas really slapped the boards down. and the speed that they played at...Brilliant. Went back a few weeks later and got recognised..i wonder how lol. Another FOC curry and an invite to join in the game. They pissed themselves when we told them of our first visit and thought it was something else,and chuckled at the glacial speed we played at. A great bunch of lads and a pleasure to know them very briefly and a shame that the pub had to close. It is i believe a arty farty eating house now, but the curry and dominos will be long remembered

Edited by silverfoxcc on Monday 6th July 14:42

[red_slr]

My now wife then GF went to Salford uni in the late 90s and their halls were right next to the Brass Handles pub and we went in a few times and had no idea it was quite so "serious" in there. Her dad found out we had been going in and told us never to go in again LOL. Luckily after her 1st year at uni she decided halls were not for her and moved back home.

[Allanv]

Back in the 90’s myself and my wife rented a flat above a pub called the Happy Landings on the Wells road out of Bristol.

The landlord barred a group of people one Friday night and for that they set fire to a car outside and it set fire to the pub but the far end from our flat.

We might have had a few ourselves, so we were dead to the world and according to the fire service it took a while for them to wake us up to let us know what was going on and to make sure we were ok.

We moved out shortly after as the fights and behaviour of the clientele got worse. It's completely flats now. Pub closed many years ago.

[MC Bodge]

red_slr said:

My now wife then GF went to Salford uni in the late 90s and their halls were right next to the Brass Handles pub and we went in a few times and had no idea it was quite so "serious" in there. Her dad found out we had been going in and told us never to go in again LOL. Luckily after her 1st year at uni she decided halls were not for her and moved back home.

Does anybody remember The Cook Report about Salford pubs?

https://youtu.be/t4ohrmjXshk

[MC Bodge]

My grandad told me that The Crown on the East Lancs/Walton Hall Ave in Liverpool was notorious in his day.

"You could buy anything from a fridge to an elephant in there" too, apparently.

[some bloke]

Garemberg said:

Ha, my mate and I went in once after an all day session and ended up with the stripper buying us drinks as apparently we were no trouble

Pennyblacks at 5am was a pretty grim place it's got to get a mention..

Edited by Garemberg on Monday 6th July 14:09

I used to go in the Penny Black quite often when I finished a night shift at the Balmoral at 8am. Sticky carpet and sticky glasses - great combination.

[some bloke]

I used to go to the IB in Tollcross in Embra, reasonably often as I lived nearby and it was cheaper than Cloisters. One night I was in there and a guy smashed a glass on a guy's head, ran out and threw a bottle in through the window.
I remember seeing light twinkling through the little fragments of glass sticking out of the guy's bald head. A few seconds later, when I realised what had happened, I saw the barmaid had an industrial sized first aid kit up on the bar and was snapping on disposable gloves before cleaning the wounds. She looked like she had done it a few times before.

Also, my mate shat his pants just before he went in there. (He'd locked himself out of his house.) He went to the bogs and cleaned up, dropping his stty keks into the bog brush holder, where they remained for at least 3 years after.

[Dan_1981]

MC Bodge said:

red_slr said:

My now wife then GF went to Salford uni in the late 90s and their halls were right next to the Brass Handles pub and we went in a few times and had no idea it was quite so "serious" in there. Her dad found out we had been going in and told us never to go in again LOL. Luckily after her 1st year at uni she decided halls were not for her and moved back home.

Does anybody remember The Cook Report about Salford pubs?

https://youtu.be/t4ohrmjXshk

Sounds lovely.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/great...

[Garemberg]

some bloke said:

I used to go to the IB in Tollcross in Embra, reasonably often as I lived nearby and it was cheaper than Cloisters. One night I was in there and a guy smashed a glass on a guy's head, ran out and threw a bottle in through the window.
I remember seeing light twinkling through the little fragments of glass sticking out of the guy's bald head. A few seconds later, when I realised what had happened, I saw the barmaid had an industrial sized first aid kit up on the bar and was snapping on disposable gloves before cleaning the wounds. She looked like she had done it a few times before.

Also, my mate shat his pants just before he went in there. (He'd locked himself out of his house.) He went to the bogs and cleaned up, dropping his stty keks into the bog brush holder, where they remained for at least 3 years after.

Ha ! That sounds about right fot the IB, Fond memories of ending up in there after a day of hospitality in Glasgow and Celtic won the treble back in the golden days of the .com boom.

[fttm]

PomBstard said:

Tyre Smoke said:

Used to be a flat roof pub in Bedminster, Bristol just down the road from Ashton Gate called unsurprisingly The Robin. Always looked as rough as a badger's behind. Particularly on match days.

Seems it's gone now, this would have been 2003/4 I guess.

That was a proper dodgy local place at any time but when City were at Ashton Gate tension went up a notch or six. Back in the late 70s City were in the top flight and visiting fans would be taken by train to Parson St, and walked down Winterstoke Road with mounted police. The Robins would be one of the focal points for local fans, with sometimes predictable results.

The Robin was fine in comparison to some , might have a problem if you wore blue and white but otherwise fairly tame .Glad it's still going

[TCEvo]

southendpier said:

Had a beer in the Bow Bells, Bow Road, London back in the day and the local hoodlums decided that I was 'F4kin' ol' bill' doing an undercover stake out.

That was interesting.

I drink in there before West Ham home games (when we were allowed to go to those) - never been there on a non-game day though. On match days it's generally home fans only.

They serve excellent pizza as well.

[Shy Torque]

garyhun said:

I used to work at The Original Swan in Cowley , Oxford during my Uni years (mid 80s).

It was the local for the Cowley car plant workers and used to have a disco every Friday. Without fail, the early shift going home and the late shift going to work would would get pissed up and then fights would ensue. Bar staff always had to break it up and it was not a pleasant experience.

The fact that the pissed up would then go and build some cars always added extra relevance for me of the phrase ‘Friday afternoon car’.

I worked there in the 80’s too. Was the bearded landlord there then - Chris Bamber I think his name was? Had enough of the fights, my car getting keyed and the final straw when said landlord’s Alsatian bit me.